Needlepoint, Fancy Stitches, and “Too Much of a Good Thing Is . . .”

A few years ago on the New Needlepoint blog, Marianne wrote about fancy stitches and the tendency for people to go for ever more difficult stitches in needlepoint.

She writes “I fear *we* , as a needlepoint community are losing touch with the simple beauty of the threads, colors, designs etc, that needlepoint used to be all about, before it was swamped by the “fancy stitch monster”.”

Thinking about what she wrote, you might suspect that Marianne and I have been discussing it. I definitely agree with her that there has been a fascination with difficult stitches and with piling on the effects on the canvas.

I compare it to those musical groups who are so enamoured of the great vocal effects they can get, that they use them to the deteriment of the music, indulging in “vocal histrionics.” Or the web designer who is so delighted he can create animations that he puts them everywhere.

In other words, people who have adopted the motto “Too much of a good thing is wonderful.” With all due respect to Mae West (who said this initially) — it’s not.

Is it wonderful when someone is wearing so many different fashion trends she becomes a “fashion victim?” No it’s not, and it isn’t wonderful in needlepoint when so many different complex stitches are piled on with so many different threads, that you lose the sense of the design.

But this doesn’t mean we should throw the baby (different stitches) with the bath water and only do plain old needlepoint in wool, like my Grandmother did. She didn’t finish that piece, I’m sure she was bored. While there is a place for plain needlepoint, there is also a place for different stitches.

Every needlepoint canvas is a work or art. We, as the stitchers, can do several things with it.

We can reproduce it faithfully, stitch by stitch, in Tent Stitch. Yes, we get a faithful reproduction, but we have done a mechanical process, and the result didn’t engage our creativity.

– or –

We can collaborate in the creative process of which the canvas is the first stage by using our knowledge of threads and stitches and our desire to make something “our own” to create a canvas which is unique.

The process of collaboration doesn’t mean no Tent Stitch, nor does it mean too many stitches. What it does mean is an appropriate and considered use of the tools we have to make something which is an interpretation by you of the original artist’s idea.

Take the abstract pictured at the top of the article. Yes, I could have stitched it as Connie originally charted it, and that would be fine. Instead by choosing my own color scheme and picking some stitches, the end result will be a collaboration, an expression of Connie’s ideas as well as my own.

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Amen. Sometimes we get so bogged down or frustrated with learning something new or trying a new thread that we lose all enjoyment from the piece. I just did a simple cross stitch piece and enjoyed watching the design – as designed – emerge on the cloth. Simple, easy, but gave my mind the freedom to wonder how that area could be done in another way, how I could get an ornament out of the design elements in this area, ussing a needlepoint stitch or different thread. Maybe boring cross stitch but relaxing and easy. A good way to wind down after a long day.

I agree with the idea of not getting so caught up in stitch variety, maximizing the number of complex stitches, adding exotic fibers, textures and beads (yee-gad),so that the patterns and harmony of the design are likely to be overwhelmed. That said, I heard or read recently (maybe Jo I. Christensens’ Needlepoint Book) that there are three main variables: stitch, color, and texture. And that it should work out OK if the variation is limited to two of the three variables. Then go to town (up to a point) on the other two.
I am working on Maggie Lanes’ “Patchwork Kimono” which demands quite a bit of variety (by definition)and heeding this two-out-of-three-variables advice seems to be keeping the whole thing “in check” rather than stitches run amuck!
I will be diligent in making sure all this work doesn’t just turn into a big mess.
As always, this website and Janets’ blog is the first thing I check after email.
cheers
susan

I can understand the line of thinking that perhaps needlepoint has strayed too far from its origins, and that there can be “too much of a good thing,” but I personally believe that using specialty stitches has several benefits.

1) It allows each stitcher to personalize each piece to their owns tastes
2) It can stretch the skills of the stitcher–the opportunity to learn something new, try something different, challenge the conventional way of looking at something
3) It makes the finished pieces (in my mind anyway), much more interesting to look at
4) It provides an opportunity to use all those cool threads now available on the market.

While I believe that plain old tent stitch has its place, I have to admit that I have NEVER done a piece in just tent stitch–I started out doing charted needlepoint from Jean Hilton and Susan Portra. The painted canvases I have in my stash will all be done with specialty stitches and heavy texture. My brain just doesn’t see them any other way.

Thank you for this, I too have been thinking how much I like some Tent stitch projects I have seen people doing versus all the ribboning and open spaces on others. I love decorative stitches as they are stitches, which is what we do, I do not understand huge gobs of ribbon and being able to see the canvas which I was always taught was to be covered in stitches, either basic or decorative. The good news is we can all do what appeals to us and there are so many choices.

I can see your point. At first I was in disagreement with you but basically you are saying everything in moderation and there is a time and place for everything. It would be like adding grace notes to every note played in a song which would be completely overdone to the point it all sounds the same verses a few well placed flourishes that enhances the performance. I am an avid cross stitcher that fell in love with needlepoint strictly based on the fact that I enjoy the specialty stitches that were getting incorporated into the current patterns. Then I discovered a local needlepoint shop and I was hooked all thanks to those fancy stitches.